An IDF committee investigating the deaths of seven
Palestinians in an explosion at a Gaza beach last Friday has
concluded that the IDF did not cause the explosion. The flip
side, which the committee did not address, is that the
Palestinian sources who blamed Israel were deliberately lying
when they fingered Israel as the cause of the tragedy.
From the beginning, the Palestinians would not cooperate with
Israeli attempts to find out what happened. They at first
blamed navy shelling, but that was quickly ruled out. They
obliterated or removed all evidence at the scene of the
explosion. Normally, the debris that remains after such an
event provides quite a bit of information about the source of
the weapons that caused it.
In this case, several of the victims were being treated in
Israeli hospitals. Unconfirmed reports said that Palestinians
attempted to remove shrapnel from the bodies of the wounded
being treated in Israeli hospitals. Nonetheless, material was
recovered from the some of the unfortunate victims, and it
indicated that the source of their wounds was not an IDF
artillery shell.
Israeli intelligence sources said that the probable cause of
the explosion was an underground bomb planted by Palestinian
terror groups to try to prevent Israeli commandos from coming
ashore to fight them, as they recently did. Israeli
intelligence has seen the recent activity of Hamas in
planting such weapons. Although it could not pinpoint the
site, it knew that the area had been mined.
The investigating committee had a great deal of information
to review, including film footage shot by Arab television
stations at the scene soon after the tragedy. These films
showed that the crater left on the beach by the blast seems
to have been made by an explosion from below (a mine), not a
hit from above like an artillery shell.
A report in WorldNetDaily about two weeks ago quoted a Hamas
official as saying that the decision had already been made to
end the restraint of Hamas against Israel and to go on the
offensive. He said that Hamas had been building up its
military abilities in the period of unilateral restraint.
Initially after the incident, the army was leaning toward
accepting the Palestinian assertion that the disaster was
caused by an errant Israeli artillery shell. Although the IDF
spokesman's initial announcement did not formally accept
responsibility, it expressed deep regret for the deaths and
announced an end to the artillery fire on Gaza until the
incident had been investigated. The foreign media
unequivocally blamed Israel for the deaths, and the Israel
media tended to do the same. Several columnists wrote
emotional arguments about shedding innocent blood.
The committee, headed by IDF Major General Meir Klifi, is to
officially present its findings to the defense minister and
the chief of staff on Tuesday night. However word of its
conclusions was reported earlier in the day. The main
uncertainty is exactly how definite the conclusions will
be.
The army hopes that the findings will clear its name and it
is up to the diplomatic services to get the message out to
world opinion. The defense minister said that Israel would
conduct a "propaganda offensive" across the globe to prove
its innocence.
The main unresolved issue in the army's evidence is the sixth
shell — actually, the first to be fired — whose
landing site has not been determined. From an examination of
the cannon, the army is convinced that the shell could not
have fallen on the beach, almost half a kilometer from its
intended target. Also it was fired about ten minutes before
the blast occurred. Gaza Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Aviv
Kochavi said that the sites that were shelled by the IDF were
the places from where Kassam rockets were launched. He noted
those places were frequently targeted by the IDF, and were
known to be dangerous places where a family would not go for
a picnic.
The IDF is hoping that doubts about the cause of the blast
will undermine public support for Hamas, and for its
announced resumption of attacks on Israel. Last September
Hamas weaponry exploded during a rally in Jabalya and killed
21 bystanders. Hamas at first accused Israel and launched a
rocket barrage, but Palestinian doubts about the Hamas
account, combined with the IDF's harsh response, caused Hamas
to cease its fire two days later.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), an
organization whose reports are widely relied upon by the
United Nations and other organizations, said, according to a
report on Israel National News, "PCHR's preliminary
investigation indicates that the attack which killed seven
members of the same family took place at approximately 16:40
on Friday, 9 June 2006. An Israeli naval boat stationed off
the coast of Beit Lahya fired seven successive artillery
shells at civilians on the beach in the Waha area, north of
Beit Lahya. The shells landed on the beach, which had been
crowded with civilian men, women and children at the time. .
. . Israeli television Channel 2 broadcast footage of the
Israeli boat firing the shells at the beach, with one of the
navy soldiers scanning the beach with binoculars; thus
indicating that the crime had been perpetrated with a
premeditated intent to kill."
There was in fact no naval shelling at the time in that area,
and no one broadcast footage of it. Although it is detailed,
and has the ring of truth, it is entirely made up and many
details are manifestly wrong. (See the editorial in this
issue, "Fighting Words.") However no correction was
issued.
Israel National News quoted Gen. (ret.) Yom Tov
Samiyeh, who was once the military commander of the area, as
saying, "It is almost certain that the incident was an
accident caused by the Palestinians, and that the
Palestinians took advantage of the situation to besmirch
Israel. I imagine, that there was some sort of mine, or at
worst, even a setup that the Palestinians arranged."
He added that during his years of army service as IDF
Southern District Commander, he experienced a number of
incidents in which the Arabs set up attacks on citizens to
make it look like Israel had done them.
It may be that the incident was staged in order to provide a
pretext for Hamas to resume attacks.
